Reversible clutch.



Patented Dec. 3|, I90l.

W. L. JUDSON.- REVERSIBLE cLuTc'H.

(Application filed Oct. 15, IBOOJ 3 Sheets'8heat I.

(No Model.)

ms gm nms Paws qu. morcxurua. WASHINGTON. lic- No. 689,887. Patented Dec. 3|, I901.

W. L. JUDSONR, REVERSIBLE CLUTCH.

(Application filed Oct. 15, 1900.1

(No Modal.) 3 Sheets-sheaf 2.

f/ A whim/013721019611 NE uofi ls PETERS 60.. moraufuou WASHINGTON u c Na. 689,887. Patsnted Dec. 3|, I901.

L. JUDSDN.

REVERSIBLE CLUTCH.

A mcazmn filed Oct. 15, 1900.)

3 Shaets-$heet 3.

(No Model.)

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NTThn STATES PATENT FFICE.

XVIIITCOMB L. JUDSON, OF CHICAGO, ILLINOIS.

REVERSIBLE CLUTCH.

SPECIFICATION formingpart of Letters Patent No. 689,887, dated December 31, 1901.

Application filed October 15, 1900. Serial No. 33,044- (No model.)

To aZZ whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, WHITOOMB L. J UDSON, a citizen of the United States, residing at Ohicago, in the county of Cook and State of Illinois, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Reversible Clutches; and I do hereby declare the following to be a full, clear, and exact description of the invention, such as will enable others skilled in the art to which it appertains to make and use the same.

My present invention has for its object to provide a reversible-clutch mechanism especially adapted for use in variable-speed power-transmission mechanism and contem plates the improvement of the same in point of simplicity, durability, ease of manipulation, and efficiency in action.

To the ends above indicated the invention consists of the novel devices and combinations of devices hereinafter described, and defined in the claims.

The clutch herein illustrated involves features of construction disclosed in my prior applications, Serial No. 13,593, filed April 20, 1900, and Serial No. 28,515, filed August 20, 1900, both entitled Power-transmission devices, and is substantially identical with the clutch illustrated in the latter of said applications.

My present invention is illustrated in the accompanying drawings, wherein like characters indicate like parts throughout the several views.

Figure 1 is a View, partly in side elevation and partly in vertical section, showing my improved clutch and eccentric devices for actuating the same. Fig. 2 is a transverse vertical section taken through the clutch ap proximately on the line a 00 of Fig. 3. Fig. 3 is a longitudinal horizontal section through the clutch, some parts being shown in full and others broken away. Fig. at is a plan view showing in detail the so-called reversing sleeve or cage with the driven hub removed therefrom. Fig. 5 is a transverse section on the line m of Fig. 4c.

The numeral 1 indicates a constantly-running driving-shaft provided with eccentrics 2, 2, and 2, on which eccentric-straps 3 are mounted to work in any suitable manner.

The numeral 4 indicates a driven shaft, which is mounted in suitable bearings, one of which is shown at 5 in Fig. 3. On this driven shaft 4 a sleeve-like hub 6 is rigidly secured, as shown, by-rneans of a key 7. The hub 6 is provided with a plurality of wedge-pressing surfaces or seats 8, afforded by countersinking the periphery of the hub at various points on lines of chords thereof. In the construction illustrated there are six series of these pressing-surfaces located side by side, and each seriesinvolves five of such surfaces extending circumferentially of the hub. This number and arrangement of the said surfaces may of course be varied.

Mounted loosely on the shaft 4 and the hub 6 is a so-callec reversing sheave or wedge shifting cage 9, which is provided With wedgepockets 10, corresponding in number and arrangement with the countersunk pressingsurfaces 8 of the hub 6. I11 each wedge-pocket 10 of the reversing-sleeve 9 is a reversely-beveled wedge 11, the inner surface of which is flat and engages the flat pressing-surface 8, which is in line therewith.

Loosely mounted on the reversing-sleeve 9 is a series of oscillating driving-rings 12, as shown, six in number. One of these drivingrings surrounds and directly cooperates with each of the six series of wedges 11. The driving-rings 12 receive their oscillating movements, in the illustration given, from the cocentrios through eccentric-straps 3, the extended arms of which are connected to eccentric portions 13 of the said rings.

As best shown in Fig. 2, the wedges 11 are reversely tapered from their centers toward their ends and are of such dimensions that when in intermediate positions they will be loosely held between the pressing-surfaces 8 and the inner surfaces of the cooperating rings 12; but when moved to an extreme po sition in either direction they will under one direction of oscillation of said rings be wedged between the inner surfaces of said rings and said pressing-surfaces 8 of the driven hub 6, as presently more fully illustrated. The beveled upper surfaces of the wedges 11 have the same curve as the inner surfaces of the driving-rings, so that extended frictional engaging surfaces are afforded between said wedges and driving-rings. The uncut and longitudinally-extended portions of the reversingsleeve 0 and the ends of the wedges 11 are respectively formed with spring-seats 14 and 15, in which the ends of coiled springs 16 are mounted. The springs 16 are thus arranged in opposing pairs, which act upon the wedges 11, as best shown in Fig. 2.

The driving-rings 12 are held in operative positions against lateral displacement by a collar 17 on the sleeve 9 and by a retaininghead 18, which, as shown, is secured on the shaft 4 by a set-screw 19. The wedges 11 of themselves serve to lock the reversing-sleeve 9 against longitudinal sliding movements on the hub 7, but permit the same the necessary oscillatory movements thereon required to reverse the driving action of the clutch. The reversing-sleeve 9 is permitted the necessary rotary movements on the shaft 4 and hub 6, but is held against sliding movements, preferably by set-screws 20, which project inward from the hub portion of said sleeve 9 and work in segmental grooves 21 in said shaft 4.

To oscillate the reversing-sleeve 9, a sliding shipper-head 22 is mounted to rotate'with, but to slide upon, the shaft 4, the same, as shown, being held for such movements by a key 23. This head 22 at its right-hand end, as viewed in Fig. 3, telescopes over the hub portion 9 of the reversing-sleeve 9 and is provided with cam pins or projections 24, shown as afiorded by set-screws, the inner ends of which work in cam-grooves 25 of the said hub portion. The movement of the shipper-head 22 from its one extreme position (indicated in Fig. 3) intoits other extreme position toward the left causes the cam-pins 24, acting on the cam-grooves 25, to impart'such relative rotations to the reversing-sleeve 9 as are necessary to reverse the action of the clutch. To readily accomplish this sliding movement of the shipper-head 22, said head is formed with a rack 26, the teeth of which are endless-that is, run completely around the said head each in its own plane. A small pinion 27 meshes with the teeth of the rack 26, and this pinion may be manipulated by means of a shaft or rod 28, to which it is secured.

Operation: When the shipper-head 22 is' moved to its extreme position toward the right, as viewed in Fig. 3, the reversing-sleeve 9 will be given a relative movement on the hub 6 in the direction indicated by the arrow marked on one of the wedges in Fig. 2, and thealternate springs 16 will be compressed, thereby lightly forcing the wedges 11 into the positions indicated in said Fig. 2 and also, but less plainly, in Fig. 1. When the wedges are thus set and the driving-ring 12 (shown in Fig.2) is oscillated in the direction indicated by the arrow marked thereon, the wedges 11 may be crowded between the inner surfaces of the said driving-ring and the flat bearing surfaces or seats 8 of the hub 6, and the shaft 4 will then be rotated in the direction indicated by the arrow marked thereon. The reverse movement of the drivingring 12 will simply loosen up the drivingwedges 11 by driving them slightly backward,

= is making its idle or return stroke.

so that the said ring freely moves without retarding the continuous movement of the shaft 4 and its hub 6. The driving-rings, which are driven from a given eccentric, are connected to the eccentric-straps on opposite sides of the shaft 4, so that they operate to drive alternately or in reverse order-that is, one makes its driving stroke while the other The several pairs of driving-rings, of which there are three in the illustration given, are given their maximum speeds in succession as the respective eccentrics 2, 2', and 2" pass a right angle to their dead-centers. Hence the work of driving the shaft 4 is taken up in succession by the six driving-wheels, with the resultthat a continuous or even driving action is kept up on the said driven shaft, the particular ring which at a given instant is moving at the highest rate of speed and in the proper direction being the one which at that time is doing the work. To reverse the action of the driving-clutch, the shipper-head 22 is by means of the pinion 27 and while the parts are in motion, if desired, moved toward the left as far as permitted by the cam-slots 25, and under this movement the cam-pins 24, acting on the said cam-slots, rotate the reversing-sleeve 9 backward with respect to the arrows marked on Fig. 2, and thereby force the driving-wedges 11 to the opposite extremities of the wedge seats or surfaces 8 of the hub 6. This being done, it is evident that the shaft 4 and the hub 6 will be driven in a reverse direction than indicated by the arrow marked thereon in said Fig. 2. It is also evident from statements already made that when the shipper-head 22 is moved into its central or intermediate position the driving wedges 11 will be held in intermediate inoperative positions, so that the clutch will have no action whatever on the driven members.

Driving-wedges of the character above described are much more efficient than balls or rollers, as they afford a much more extended frictional engagement with the driving and driven members. It results with the con struction illustrated that there is a very much less radial or outward strain on the drivingrings 12 than there would be if rollers, for instance, were substituted for the drivingwedges. In the illustration given the rings 12 are driving members and the shaft 4 and hub 6 are driven members; but it will of course be understood that so far as the broad idea of my invention is concerned this construction might be reversed, although it would not, for obvious reasons, be the full equivalent of the construction illustrated.

What I claim, and desire to secure by Letters Patent of the United States, is as follows: 1. In a reversible clutch, the combination with a rotary driven member provided with a plurality of wedge-seats or pressing-surfaces, of an oscillating driving ring or member working around the wedge-seats of said driven member, reversely-beveled drivingwedges seated for reverse driving actions between the inner surface of said driving-ring and the cooperating seats of said driven member, and a wedge-reversing sleeve or cage mounted for a limited movement on said driven member and acting upon said Wedges to shift the same into extreme positions, and thereby reverse the action of the clutch, substantially as described.

2. In a reversible clutch, the combination with a rotary driven member provided with a plurality of wedge-seats or pressing-surfaces, of an oscillating driving ring or memher working around said wedge-seats of said driven member, reversely-beveled driving- Wedges having a double Wedge action between the inner surface of said driving-ring and the cooperating wedge-seats, wedge-reversing sleeve or cage mounted for a limited movement on said driven member, and spring connections between said sleeve or cage and the ends of said wedges, substantially as described.

3. In a reversible clutch, the combination with the driven hub 6, having several circumferential series of Wedge-seats or pressingsurfaces 8, the reversing-sleeve 9 having the corresponding wedge-pockets 10, the wedges 11 in said seats 8, several oscillating drivingrings 12 mounted on said sleeve 9 and surrounding the cooperating wedges 11, the springs 16 compressed between the ends of said wedges and intervening portions of said reversing-sleeve, and means for shifting said reversing-sleeve 9, comprising the sliding head 22 having a cam action on said reversing-sleeve and provided With the endless rack teeth 26, and a pinion engaging said rackteeth, said parts operating substantially as described.

In testimony whereof I affix my signature in presence of two witnesses.

WHITGOMB L. JUDSON.

Witnesses:

JOHN M. YOUNG, CHARLES L. WHITE. 

